Nightingale Awoken
by VibeQuake
Summary: My name is Florence Nightingale. One night, I froze at sunrise as normal. Ten years later, I and the rest of the museum have woken up with a plethora of questions. Where are Larry and Ahk? What is wrong with the tablet? Where did those two new exhibits come from? And is there more to this new nightguard than meets the eye? Sequel to Nightingale At The Smithsonian Museum.


**A/N: This story takes place after the third movie.**

**...**

Someone is calling my name over and over again. The voice sounds distant but like I should know who it belongs to. But it isn't until I manage to force my heavy eyes open that the face of my best friend swims into view.

"Florence!" Neil lets out a deep breath, some colour returning to his pale face. "Jesus, I genuinely thought you were dead."

"What...happened…?" I croak, my voice feeling scratchy.

"I have NO idea." Neil's voice changes; he sounds utterly terrified. "It's chaos out there. Larry's gone, the civil war guys are rioting, the animals are all loose, the tablet's locked up and nobody can get to it, Attila's started a brawl with the neanderthals, the miniatures are also locked up and starting to turn on each other… Nobody has any idea what's happening. It's like the first night all over again."

"Ugh…" My brain feels like it's about to explode with all this new information. I push myself into a sitting position, helped by Neil. It's only then that I register my surroundings. "Why am I in the nightguard's office?"

"You...woke up really late," says Neil nervously. "When you unfroze, you fainted almost immediately. I brought you here when the stampede started upstairs. The door's locked," he added, almost as an afterthought. "I don't know what to do, Florence. Everything's gone crazy."

"Okay, um…" I pause for a moment, trying to wrap my numb brain around all this. "You said Larry's gone?"

"He must be, otherwise none of this would be happening. You know Larry has a way of taming all the exhibits."

"Yeah, yeah…" I force myself to breathe, using Neil's shoulder to push myself to my feet. "Okay, we need to go out there and do something about this. I need to find Ahk and Teddy; they'll know what to do."

"I couldn't find either of them," says Neil. "When I went to check on the tablet, I saw Ahk's casket was open and it looked empty to me. And Teddy's not in his usual place. His horse is, but he's… he's not."

I nod slowly, not at all encouraged by this development. "I wonder what could have happened to cause all this."

"Huh?"

"I mean, everyone in the museum was getting along fine last I checked. Why has everything gone so wrong so quickly? Do you think it's a problem with the tablet?"

Neil hesitates, before slowly shaking his head. "I don't know. It looked fine when I saw it earlier, but… I don't know it as well as you do."

I make a quick decision. "I need to see the tablet. And I need to make sure that Hilda is okay."

"Alright. I'll c-come with you."

The tremble in Neil's voice does not go unnoticed. "Are you sure? You seem scared."

"To be honest…" He lets out a sigh. "I am. I'm really scared. But I think I'd be more scared if I let you go out there alone. At least I can be useful if I go with you."

I give Neil's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Thank you, Neil. I'll feel better out there with you."

A small smile appears on his face. "We'd better hurry."

We move to either side of the door. While Neil unlocks it, I peer through the glass window. Through it, I can see a few wild animals from the African Mammals exhibit roaming around in the foyer, as well as about a dozen of the civil war puppets chasing each other up the stairs. Taking a deep breath, I yank open the door and dart out, immediately rushing to the right to avoid detection by any of the animals. Neil follows suit, dodging around the water fountain in the hall.

The first room on my list that we come across is the Hall of Miniatures. I rush inside and straight to the nearest exhibit: Ancient Rome.

Just as Neil said, it's in chaos. All the tiny people are rushing about in a mad panic, and I can see a few of their miniature trebuchets have been launching their small rocks across the exhibit.

Thankfully, it's not hard to spot Octavius; he's sheltering inside the model of the coliseum. He spies me straight away and his face lights up, but from in front of the glass, I can't hear what he says.

I point down at the line that separates the two parts of the dividing curtain. He seems to get it and rushes out into the chaos, dodging between his people and over an upended cart before reaching the place I indicated. I'm initially not sure if my plan will work-I don't know how tough those sliding panels are, after all-but luckily, it doesn't take much for me to pry them apart just enough for Octavius to slip out. I scoop him up immediately and bring him close enough to my face that we can have a proper conversation.

"Hey! You okay?" I gasp, the adrenaline making me breathless.

"I think so, but goodness me, something has really gone wrong here!" Octavius sounds exactly the same. "As soon as I unfroze, a few of my men attacked me! I had to escape to the coliseum just to avoid being stabbed by my own cousin."

"Any idea why this is happening?" I demand.

"None at all, Miss Nightingale. My only guess is that it's something to do with the tablet."

"Right, yes… Do you know where Hilda is?"

"I think she was spending the night over in the Mayan exhibit with Akna," replies the Roman general. "But if we're rescuing them anyway, can we-?"

"We're getting Jed too, don't worry," I interrupt. "I'm going to need you four on my side. I bet the other mini exhibits are just as chaotic as yours, though."

Sure enough, it's just as much of a struggle to get Jed, Hilda, and Akna out of their respective exhibits. They all seem happy to see each other again.

"What th' hell is happenin'?" Jed demands. "Why're all mah men at each other's throats?"

"Don't know but I think I hear thundering footsteps so we'd better get out of here quick," I say hurriedly, taking off running again with Hilda and Akna balanced on my shoulders. Neil follows, carrying Octavius and Jed in the same way.

In no time, we reach the locked gates of the Ancient Egypt exhibit. Again just as Neil said, the tablet is sitting in its normal place on the wall. The casket is open, and from here, it does indeed look empty. My stomach drops with disappointment and worry.

"Where are you, my love…?" I murmur.

"Well, we can't get in there without the keys," says Neil, his eyes fixed on the tablet. "So what do we do now?"

As I open my mouth to reply, a distant but still loud crash makes us all jump. "We go back to the office and lock ourselves in until we know what's happening," I say.

"Good plan."

…

Breathing a sigh of relief as Neil locks the office door behind us, I turn and deposit Hilda and Akna onto the desk. Neil then places Octavius and Jed next to them, and the six of us just watch each other in silence for a few minutes, none of us completely sure what to say.

"I don't know what happens now," I admit after a long pause. "We might have to just wait until things calm down enough out there that we're not in danger every time we go out."

"At least it's warm in here," sighs Octavius, before turning to his friends. "Are you three alright? I didn't get a chance to ask that earlier."

"I'm fine," Hilda replies immediately.

"Same."

Akna says nothing, her head tilted towards the ground. She's the newest addition to our miniature family here and I have to admit that it's hard for me to get a read on her. She seems not to talk very much and when she does, it's in broken English. I don't know much about her. I barely even know how Octavius, Jed, and Hilda met her. Something about an incident involving an owl. **(1)**

"Akna?" prompts Octavius.

The Mayan princess raises her head. "Bad energy here. I sense terrible magic in the air. Evil magic." She pauses for a moment, then adds, "The gold turns grey."

I frown and turn away, turning that one over in my mind. But that's when something on the wall catches my eye. It's a calendar hanging opposite the desk, a picture of a strange obelisk on the top and the month of February on the bottom. This simple item sends a cold shiver down my spine as a thought occurs to me. I yank it down from the wall and turn it over to the front.

My blood runs cold as I register what's written there.

"Neil," I say shakily.

He turns to me. "What's wrong?"

"Neil…" My breath catches in my throat. "We've been asleep for ten years."

…

**(1) = See "Nightingale At The Museum Oneshots" chapter one for this story.**


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